14 DAY TRIAL // A Nintendo Wii U commercial that was aired in the UK in the last few months has just been banned by the Advertising Standards Association for misleading customers, as the ad claimed that all games supported the ability to switch gameplay to the GamePad's touchscreen, even if some titles don't have such a feature.
Nintendo released the Wii U at the end of November around the world and it coupled this with a variety of impressive ads that hyped up the different features of the device, from its unique GamePad, to the different things that were possible with the home console and its controller.
Now, it seems that one of these ads has gotten Nintendo in trouble in the UK, as the ASA, the country's own advertising regulatory body, has banned the commercial because it misled customers.
More specifically, the ad claimed that all Wii U owners were able to switch gameplay footage from being displayed on the TV to the GamePad, even if some titles don't actually support this.
"We considered that the option to switch gameplay to the GamePad controller could be available on all games, and as this was a new console consumers would not have an awareness of whether this was something specific to individual games or a general feature of the console," the ASA mentioned in its findings.
"We considered that, in this context, the ad should have made clear that this feature would not be available on all games. Because it did not, we concluded the ad was misleading."
Nintendo tried to defend itself against the accusations, saying that it has no power over what features third-party developers put into their Wii U games, but the ASA's decision remains.
"[Nintendo] said it was correct that some games would not include this feature but they had no control over how third-party software developers used the capabilities of their console," the ASA mentioned.
As a result, the commercial, which you can find below, has been banned and Nintendo will have to either release a new ad or modify the existing one.
